People with high level of self esteem almost always achieve their lifelong goals easier. Usually, self esteem is associated with self confidence that is needed to survive in today’s harsh society. Without self confidence, your actions will be limited to the things you are accustomed to. You cannot fully unleash your potential because you will be overtaken by fears and anxieties. Your lack of confidence will lead you to thinking that you do not deserve to be successful. You should know that having this attitude is not good. You should try to lean on the positive side of life, which will attract more opportunities that will eventually lead to your success.

What is Self Esteem?

Self esteem means knowing your worth as a person. It means knowing that you are valuable enough to deserve success. Self esteem is your own subjective observation on how you are as a human being. Usually, self esteem focuses on the emotional aspect of a person. It covers a person’s beliefs, attitudes and personality. Your self esteem could lean on either positive or negative, depending on your nature.

Having enough level of self esteem is important not only for you, but also for the people around you. Actually, having less or too much self esteem can lead to bigger problems. Having too modest self esteem could make a person depressed, introvert, wallow in self pity, or easily get intimidated. Your low self esteem might even cause you to do poorly in school, at work, or in life. On the other hand, having too high self esteem could make your drown in narcissism, acquire superiority complex, and cause you to not accept failures. These are problems that don’t only burden the person, but also others surrounding him. As much as possible, maintain the appropriate level of self esteem to achieve balance.

How to Build High Self Esteem

Building high self esteem doesn’t necessarily mean being too self-centered. Sometimes, it could only mean improving yourself in the hopes of achieving your life goals. It’s not really that bad to love yourself. In fact, you are even encouraged to take care of yourself and appreciate your achievements. But you must ensure that you are doing it in moderation. Do not focus too much on yourself and forget others. You still have to interact with the society in order to become successful.

There’s lot of self esteem activities that can help you appreciate yourself more. These activities are designed to boost your confidence and help you value the little details about yourself more. These activities are usually focused on dealing with emotional stress, anxieties, fears, depression and insecurities. The effect of these activities varies from person to person. It will depend on how well you receive the activities and how well you interpret it.

In order for you to develop an appropriate level of self esteem, you first need to learn how to like yourself. Liking yourself means embracing everything within you, both imperfections and strengths. When you learn to appreciate yourself, you will be able to proudly look in the mirror and say that you are a person worth loving. However, it’s never as easy as it seems. Most of the time, you are swallowed by insecurities that are caused by the judgmental nature of the society today.

Top 6 Self Esteem Activities

Here are some of the best self esteem activities that you can do in order to start improving your self’s evaluation and performance:

Think positively about yourself.

Sometimes, you don’t realize that you are thinking badly about yourself. You naturally become your very own critique and you often end up getting frustrated. If this has already become your habit, then you need to put a stop to it. You have to start thinking about all the good traits and skills that you have. Focus more on your strengths rather than complaining about your weaknesses. This is the key to liking yourself more. The truth is, no one will really love you as much as yourself.

There are a number of ways on how you can maintain having positive thoughts all throughout the day. Before you even criticize yourself, think whether you are capable of telling the same criticism to your friends. You should assess whether your friends would be glad if you told them the same opinion you have with yourself. Don’t let your cruel inner voice bring you down. Don’t focus too much on your faults. After all, these faults are part of human nature.

Interact with others more often.

You’ll never realize the importance of socializing unless you do it yourself. You can get a lot of benefits from interacting with others. As you meet more people, you will be exposed to different personalities. You might even find someone who has a similar personality with you. Knowing these people will help you understand how unique each person is. Once you realize that everybody is created equal and unique, you will start appreciating yourself more.

Appreciate effort, no matter how small it is.

Some people naturally have high standards. While there’s really nothing wrong with that, it sometimes becomes a burden. Having high standards means not easily being pleased, especially when so little progress is made. If you want to develop a high level of self esteem, then you have to accept the fact that no one is perfect. You have to understand that people make mistakes, and it’s perfectly normal.

Don’t focus too much on your failures. Failures aren’t really losses. Most of the time, these failures symbolize your efforts to make your life better. This is the result of trying to achieve your goal. When you focus on becoming perfect, you will feel the pressure – a pressure that you created. Instead of aiming for perfection, try to count the little efforts that you have done and be happy you have tried becoming successful. If all your efforts don’t work, then so be it. There are still a lot of opportunities that will come your way.

Remember that each person has his own strengths and weaknesses.

The problem with today’s society is that it’s full of senseless comparisons and judgments. You have to realize that everyone is given a special gift – a skill that is only he is good at. It’s the same for you. You have your own arena. Maybe you are not blessed with smooth dance skills, but you are showered with a great voice.

Stop comparing yourself to other people because that’s totally useless. There’s really no basis for a comparison because you are unique in your own way. Focus on what you already have and cultivate it.

Know your limits.

It’s good to be positive, but you should also know your limitations. You should know that there are things that you cannot change, no matter how hard you try. Instead of pushing yourself too hard to change what’s unchangeable, try doing little steps to change what you can. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Embrace your limitations and be happy that there are still a lot of things that you can do despite those restrictions.

Welcome change.

They say the only thing that’s constant in this world is CHANGE. Well, that’s totally true. You should always welcome change with a positive attitude. Since change is inevitable, you might as well embrace it wholeheartedly. By doing this, you will not become frustrated easily. Your mind will be opened to more possibilities which is one of the keys to achieving higher self esteem.

Signs of Low Self Esteem

Some people exude over-confidence, while other people show signs of low self esteem. This is one of the most common problems faced by a lot of young people today. Today’s society makes it hard for anybody to become what he truly wants. There are eyes watching your every move and there will always be snide remarks no matter what you do. This culture of destructive criticism is one of the causes why there are many people who have low self esteem. Instead of freely doing what you want, you will think twice because of fear of being judged or rejected. Since you cannot really change the society, it would be better to change your attitude towards judgment and criticisms. Actually, you have the ultimate choice whether to ignore criticisms or take it personally.

Sometimes, you don’t realize how much you look down on yourself. You are too preoccupied with thoughts of negativity, which makes you feel small. Every time you experience this, try to do something that will distract you from it.

Depression, insecurities, jealousy, lack of satisfaction and having mixed emotions are only a few of the many signs of low self esteem. These are traits that can potentially harm not only your emotional state, but also your physical & mental states as well. Before this happens, you must step up and start thinking about positive thoughts. As much as possible, get yourself busy and never let your mind go idle for a moment. That way, you will not have time to think about negative thoughts that are causing you to have low self esteem.